Dereel's destroyed possessions reborn as cutting edge art

One year ago, a fire destroyed 16 homes in Dereel. While some in the community are still struggling to rebuild their homes and lives, retired welder Jeffrey Kirsten is using his creativity and skills to create art from the scrap metal the fire left behind.

Jeffrey Kirsten, 70, has lived in a house on the corner of the main road through Dereel for about five years. In the past year, the local community has watched as his front yard has become home to a growing metal menagerie.

There's a pig made from two gas cylinders, a big cat made from horseshoes, a Scottish Terrier made from bicycle chains.

Then there are the more difficult to identify creatures - such as something that could be an echidna with horns made from exercise bike handles.

But standing in pride of place at the front gate - with its screw claws raised threateningly and screw teeth bared - is a two metre high alien.

Jeffrey says 95 percent of the alien's parts - of which there are hundreds - came from the fire.

"So this whole thing, you could say, has arisen and come out of the fires. And that's why I made it."

The retired welder and boilermaker says he started making the sculptures when he noticed lots of material - scrap, tools, springs, compressors, gas bottles - lying around after the fire.

"Everyone was going to get rid of this and I was looking at it and thought, 'I could use that and maybe do something with it'."

While Jeffrey says he's always been creative and enjoys drawing, before he was retired he didn't have enough time to pursue his artistic interests.

Primarily, his sculptures gave him something to do, and he was able to use his welding skills to put his creatures together.

"It kept me from being bored and I thought, 'I'll make them and then I'll stick them all over the yard and then people who live here can see them all and they'll enjoy looking at it'."

Jeffrey's creatures attracted a lot more attention than he expected, and soon people were asking if they were for sale. He's now sold - sometimes reluctantly - about 15 of his sculptures, mostly to locals.

"It gives me satisfaction knowing they like it and it also gives me satisfaction knowing that they know where it comes from, and that's one of the reasons why they bought it.

"They bought it for the artwork but they also bought it because it came out of the fire."